The Pacific League All-Stars continued their recent dominance over the Central League with a 7-5 victory in Game 1 of the 2026 Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Series on Tuesday night at Tokyo Dome.
After winning eight of the previous nine All-Star games coming into the night, the PL produced 17 hits and pulled away behind back-to-back home runs from 2025 PL Rookie of the Year Misho Nishikawa (Chiba Lotte Marines) and Itsuki Murabayashi (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles) in the eighth inning.
All-Star Game 1 Recap
The CL struck first with solo home runs from Teruaki Sato (Hanshin Tigers) and Seiya Hosokawa (Chunichi Dragons) in each of the opening two innings against reigning Sawamura Award winner Hiromi Itoh (Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters).
Taichi Yamano (Tokyo Yakult Swallows) kept the PL off the board early, but they responded in the third as Kensuke Kondoh (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) delivered an RBI double before Franmil Reyes (Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters) tied the game with a run-scoring single off Haruto Inoue (Yomiuri Giants).
Chusei Mannami (Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters) put the PL ahead with an RBI single off Yudai Ohno (Chunichi Dragons) in the fifth. The Japanese-Congolese outfielder added an RBI double in the seventh, giving him four hits on the night and extending the lead to 4-2.
The PL then broke the game open in the eighth as Nishikawa launched a two-run homer off Shinya Matsuyama (Chunichi Dragons), and Murabayashi followed with a solo shot to make it 7-2.
The CL answered in the bottom half as Takumi Ohshiro (Yomiuri Giants) drove in a run with a double to center before Yusuke Ohyama (Hanshin Tigers) hit a two-run homer off Rikuto Yokoyama (Chiba Lotte Marines), cutting the deficit to 7-5.
Hideki Nagaoka (Tokyo Yakult Swallows) led off the ninth with a double, but Shoma Fujihira (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles) retired the next three batters to secure the victory.
Kaima Taira (Saitama Seibu Lions) earned the win after striking out three batters over two scoreless innings of relief, while Ohno took the loss.
Mannami earned MVP honors after going 4-for-4 with two RBI and finishing a home run shy of the cycle. It was the 26-year-old’s second All-Star MVP award, having previously won it in Game 2 of the 2023 series.
The All-Star Series will now shift to Toyama Municipal Baseball Stadium for Game 2. Toyama will become the first countryside venue without an NPB home team to host an All-Star Game since Matsuyama in 2022.
The regular season will resume on Friday, July 31.
Home Run Derby
Prior to the game, NPB held the opening rounds of its eight-player Home Run Derby.
Teruaki Sato (Hanshin Tigers) edged Kotaro Kiyomiya (Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters), 10-8, in overtime, while Shota Morishita (Hanshin Tigers) defeated Chusei Mannami (Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters), 9-6, to set up an all-Tigers semifinal.
Sato then beat Morishita, 7-4, to secure his place in the final. He will face the winner of Wednesday’s half of the bracket, which features NPB home run leader Ryoya Kurihara (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks), defending derby champion Shugo Maki (Yokohama DeNA BayStars), Seiya Hosokawa (Chunichi Dragons), and Franmil Reyes (Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters).
Fresh All-Star Game
On Monday, the Fresh All-Star Game, NPB’s equivalent of the Futures Game, was held at HARD OFF ECO Stadium Niigata, home of the unaffiliated NPB Farm team Oisix Niigata Albirex.
The Pacific League scored five runs in the ninth inning to come away with a 7-3 comeback victory.
18-year-old Marines prospect Genki Ishigaki started for the PL, reaching 95 mph during a scoreless inning.
Fighters prospect Kane Edokpolo, the younger brother of Japanese-Korean-Nigerian MMA fighter King Edokpolo, was named MVP after smashing a three-run homer in the ninth.
The Tokyo Dome is hosting the Super Round and final games of the 2024 WBSC Premier12. (Photo Courtesy WBSC)
